Editorials

THUMBS UP! ACCREDITED AGAIN. In the world of colleges and universities, accreditation is always a big deal. And in a town such as Las Vegas, where educational institutions are among the largest employers, an accreditation for the university that trains most local teachers is an even bigger deal. So, needless to say, the Highlands University School of Education’s re-accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education is a real cause for celebration.

State District Judge Eugenio Mathis made an outstanding call last week when he ruled in favor of Rock Ulibarri in a case involving a pending election of the Mora-San Miguel Electric Cooperative. The judge was bold and decisive in his use of the law to right a wrong that otherwise would have usurped a democratic process.

Unfortunately, however, the process is still at risk of being usurped, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Moving to a four-day classroom schedule in the Las Vegas City School District is an easy sale to most students — they’d love to enjoy a three-day weekend. Moreover, we suspect that most teachers also like the idea, since it would give them a day for training, planning and collaborating.

THUMBS UP! NO CLOSINGS. Good news for Holman, Villanueva and thousands of other rural communities across the nation — the U.S. Postal Service has scrapped its plan to close about 3,700 post offices, instead opting to cut hours instead.

We’re glad to see Las Vegas city officials being conservative in their budget work for the coming fiscal year. City Manager Timothy Dodge and his staff have offered up a flat $43.2 million budget even though revenue is likely to increase. It’s sound fiscal management to tuck away the additional money instead of finding something to spend it on, and we hope the City Council approves a budget with essentially the same bottom line.

When it comes to preserving the work of the U.S. Postal Service, community newspapers like the Optic have an obvious self-interest. So do Las Vegas, Mora and every other small community with a post office.

As Washington wrestles with revenue shortfalls at the USPS, thousands of rural post offices have come under threat of closure. Such closures would have a devastating effect on villages and hamlets all across America. Plus, there’s an ongoing debate over whether to end Saturday deliveries, which would only send the Postal Service deeper into financial distress.

THUMBS DOWN! DWI IN THE MORNING. State police responded to a crash scene a week ago Friday after a suspected drunken driver crashed into a telephone pole on Mountain View Drive, started to flee and crashed into a car at Seventh Street and Mountain View. Keith T. Gutierrez, 28, of Las Vegas, then ran from his vehicle to the nearby Allsup’s, where he climbed into someone’s vehicle and told the driver to get him out of there, according to the probable cause statement. But it didn’t work.

THUMBS DOWN! DRY AND DRIER. Once again, we’re off to a parched start. According to an Associated Press report this week, by mid-April all of New Mexico was categorized as abnormally to exceptionally dry, which means that farmers and ranchers are already scrambling to find ways to irrigate their land.

Could the success of Saturday night’s Highlands University President’s Gala be a watershed accomplishment for Las Vegas? To hear some people talking about the event, it just might be the beginning of something even bigger.

Of course, it’s easy to say it was a great success for a good cause, since more than $100,000 was netted for student scholarships, but what went into the gala, and what was celebrated, adds exponentially to its overall value.